Cowa-TNGA! Toyota’s New Modular Platform Reaching Production This Year

Alexander Stoklosa

Mar 27, 2015

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Much ado has been made over Volkswagen’s MQB modular front-drive vehicle platform, a versatile assemblage that’s already seeing duty in the VW Golf, the European-market VW Passat, and the Audi A3 sedan (here) and hatch (Europe). It is lightweight, flexible, and we feel the need to bring up those three letters—M, Q, B—every time we talk about a new Volkswagen Group product that uses the modular architecture. But did you know that Toyota’s aiming for a similar bogey?

Toyota one-ups VW in the letter count for its platform’s name: TNGA, which we can assure you isn’t a college party where attendees dress up as ancient Romans wearing white bedsheets. The acronym stands for Toyota New Global Architecture, and while we’ve known Toyota has been working on the new vehicle architecture for some time now, the company’s CEO Akio Toyoda has now announced on the record that we’ll see the first modular fruits of TNGA labor this year.

According to Akio: “Toyota will begin rolling out its new platforms with the launch of a mid-size front-wheel-drive vehicle this year, followed by specific new platforms for front-wheel-drive compact and large vehicles, as well as for rear-wheel-drive vehicles. Toyota expects approximately half of its vehicles sold worldwide in 2020 to feature the new platforms.”

So what front-drive, mid-size new Toyota is due out this year? Our intel suggests that none other than the next-generation Prius hybrid will be the first product to use TNGA as well as new engine and drivetrain tech. That said, Akio really grabbed our attention with his mention of “rear-wheel-drive vehicles.” Any commitment to rear-drive is good news in our books, and we’re eager to see what RWD models Toyota has in mind. Our guess is the next-generation Lexus IS and LS, as well as possibly a Toyota- or Lexus-badged sports car. We’ll have to wait and see what develops—and start getting used to us name-dropping “TNGA” in our Toyota stories from now on.